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2018 Conf Hi-Lites

2018 Rocky Mountain Youth Leadership Conference

The 2018 Rocky Mountain Youth Leadership Conference was held June 25-29, 2018 at the University of Colorado – Colorado Springs. Ninety-three attendees from 37 different Front Range and other high schools were in attendance. See photos of the attendees in their color groups below.

“Your efforts allowed me to develop myself both as a leader and a patriot through incredible lectures and team activities.”

“I delighted in listening to the variety of speakers, meeting new people, working with a great team to complete challenges, …and lowering the American flag as the color guard. Thank you for this spectacular adventure; I am extremely grateful for all the hard work your organization has done for us.”

“The entire experience was amazing. I met new and different kinds of people from all over Colorado, listened to great speakers, and learned how to be a better Samaritan. I absolutely recommend this for future students and leaders today and I hope future generations will enjoy the conference as much as I did.”

“RMYLC has been the best experience that I have ever encountered in a leadership conference. My life, and where I am at today with school has been because of my love for this conference. RMYLC has forever since changed my life, and I owe my life to the success it brings to each and every student like myself. Dreams truly do come true.”

“Thank you so much for providing a scholarship for me. I learned a lot about economics and a free enterprise economy. Also, I have seen my leadership skills progress due to the variety of speakers that have spoken here. I especially enjoyed the flag ceremonies and hearing stories about the brave men and women who make me proud to be an American.“

“I can speak on the behalf of all of us by saying that [the RMYLC] conference was a life changing opportunity. With all of the leadership skills I’ve learned and all the friendships that I made, I feel confident that I could lead the JROTC, band, and everything else to the best of my abilities.”

“To be honest, I thought I would hate coming to RMYLC, but it ended up being one of the best weeks of my life!”

“RMYLC is the second leadership service conference I have attended this summer. After completion of both, this camp has far surpassed the expensive international conference I attended earlier. Here I was able to grow as a leader through actual situations. The lack of distractions and the focus on character-building made this camp a true success. This has overall been a great experience and has allowed me to grow greatly.”

“RMYLC gave me the opportunity to learn long-term decision-making skills with the various lectures and team-building activities, an opportunity I devoured. I do know that the life-changing experience RMYLC provided will not only prove useful but powerful in my future as a leader.”

“An amazing week. Everyone who put together this week did a great job. This week was a great experience.”

“RMYLC was a chance to broaden my leadership skills… Everyone got the chance to learn. [All involved in the conference] are leaders I want to follow and …. are my heroes. Thank you all for this conference and expanding my leadership skills.”

“This opportunity has changed my life. The lectures combined with the group reflections allowed me to internalize what it means to be a leader. The greatest hope for the attendees was that they would use what they learned in their lives after the conference. I can say that myself as well as those around me have already noticed a positive growth in my leadership abilities.”

Winning Conference Essay on Leadership:

The Main Priorities of a Responsible Leader

“We live in a world of stupid people.” As simple as this quote by Dave Keller is, it is truthful and says a lot about the general population. However, there are people in this world that are able to guide them like a shepherd to his or her flock: leaders. To be able to guide the not-so exceptional and unintelligible, the main priorities of a responsible leader should be to be humble, competent, and have high morale.

Humility is one of the first great steps in becoming a responsible leader. As a fellow student said, “[We should] see our own faults to better ourselves.” Humbling one’s self disrupts the extended pride that prevents growth and character development.

Competence is crucial in being a responsible leader. A responsible leader should be mechanically strong. In other words, he or she should be able to lead through his or her knowledge and skills of the given area or task. If a shepherd does not even know how to lead the sheep, why is this person called a shepherd in the first place?

Lastly, a responsible leader should have high morale. He or she must have that charismatic factor that gives everyone motivation and inspiration. Believing in the cause and being cheerful gives everyone a purpose to keep going.

Humility. Competence. High morale. These attributes are necessary in creating a responsible leader. If one prioritizes these attributes, then maybe, this world of stupid people can transform to a world of less stupid people.